For-Profit Colleges Stole Our Past 10 Years. But Trump Has the Chance to Make it Right. | USA Today

May 28, 2020

When we met in 2007, we were on our way to achieving the American dream, and we were doing it together. We were students at the now-closed Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in Florida. Thirteen years and some 25 student loans later, our dreams of marriage, a family and home ownership have been deferred by our overwhelming student loan debt.

The Education Department agreed to process 170,000 claims by student loan borrowers who want their debts canceled because they were misled by their colleges under a settlement jointly proposed by the department and a consumer group.

The Trump Administration Has Agreed to Make Final Decisions Within 18 Months on Nearly 170,000 Loan Forgiveness Applications | Politico

April 13, 2020

Under the agreement, the Education Department would be required to make a final decision on each of the claims within 18 months from the time the judge signs off on the deal. Borrowers still waiting for a decision after that time will have 30 percent of their loans discharged for each month the department misses the deadline.

The Trump administration has agreed to process nearly 170,000 debt cancellation claims within 18 months from borrowers who say they were defrauded by their colleges. The proposed settlement agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in California on Friday, stems from a class-action lawsuit brought against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her agency in June by a group of borrowers awaiting decisions on their applications, some for as long as five years.

DeVos Settles Suit Over Debt Relief for Defrauded Students | Courthouse News Service

April 10, 2020

Students who claim they were defrauded by for-profit colleges will get decisions on their requests for debt relief within 18 months under the terms of a proposed settlement reached with the U.S. Department of Education Friday.

The U.S. Education Department is promising to process student loan forgiveness claims for nearly 170,000 borrowers within 18 months as part of a proposed settlement announced Friday in a federal lawsuit.

Student Loan Borrowers Sue Betsy DeVos – Again | Forbes

February 26, 2020

Student loan borrowers have filed yet another lawsuit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over the Borrower Defense to Repayment program. Borrower Defense to Repayment was established in 2016 by the Obama administration. The program was created in the wake of the collapse of major for-profit colleges to provide student loan forgiveness for borrowers who were defrauded by their schools.

WASHINGTON—The Education Department is providing loan relief to some 7,800 former students of the ITT Technical Institute, with debts totaling $95.1 million being forgiven by the government years after the giant for-profit school chain closed. The department said that it has identified 7,878 former students of ITT Tech as eligible for a program in which loans are discharged automatically within three years of a school closure. Of those borrowers who attended the school, 7,697 had received loan forgiveness as of Jan. 3.

Defrauded college students will no longer be taxed on their canceled loans | Washington Post

January 16, 2020

Student loan borrowers whose education debt has been canceled because their college closed or engaged in fraud will no longer face a tax bill, relief that arrives as applications for forgiveness continue to grow. On Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service issued guidance shielding borrowers from having their discharged federal and private loans treated as taxable income. The measure is effective for education loans canceled on or after Jan. 1, 2016. Anyone affected by the new policy may claim a credit or refund for an overpayment of taxes.

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